Home-Made Bread and Stevia

A friend of mine recently requested the home-made bread recipe that I used to make weekly before embracing more of a low wheat menu for the family.  It is so easy and versatile that I thought maybe others would enjoy it as well. 

  

 French Bread

5 C. warm water

1 1/2 T salt

1/4 C instant yeast

1/4 C sugar, or honey

1/4 C olive oil or lard

Combine all of the above and let set til yeast gets bubbly, then slowly add enough flour (approx. 14 C?) until a soft, smooth dough turns out.  It can then be molded into 4 bread pans, or onto cookie sheets in a french style way.  Make diagonal slits across loaves, brush with egg whites and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds.  If you are using wheat flour, you may want to allow some time for raising, but not necessary if using all white flour.  Bake at 400 at 20 min. or until done.

A more healthy alternative to white flour is using fresh ground whole wheat.  I have a K-Tec mill that I purchased at Mast's Bulk Foods near Myerstown.  I know Ruth would be happy to sell you one, too! :-)

I combine everything in my bosch mixer using bread hooks.

Well worth the time.....try different flours, sweetners, and oils and find the combo that you like best...

Stevia

Last year at our home-school co-op, the students from the money management class each had to be an entrepreneur, make their products and market it to the rest of the families.  One young fella started plants and made neat little signs to go with them.  He had a stevia plant and I excitedly purchased it.  I brought it home and planted it in one of my tubs and it did wonderfully!  I had taken pictures of the beginning stages, but can't find them anywhere on this computer. :-(  Anyway, the plant grew all summer, got so big that I had put a tomato cage around it to hold it up. I cut the stems, brought them in, hung them up to dry... 

stripped all the dried leaves off and ground them in a coffee grinder

Still debating on making the powder into a liquid.  In the meantime, I use a small amount in tea.  Definately not as sweet as the liquid where a drop sweetens a cup of tea.  This was a fun experiment - one that I will repeat in the future.

Until next time.........